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Obama’s green cred on the line in second term

An early test will be the president’s decision on Keystone XL. | AP Photo

Those overtures to industry worry some environmentalists, who fear that Obama has backed away from their issues. But they hope that the president will come out with guns blazing in his second term.

“I think his second term could be a lot easier for Obama. The fossil fuel industry threw everything in the kitchen sink at him. And they failed miserably. It’s embarrassing really,” said Heather Taylor-Miesle, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, pointing to the aggressive opposition campaign to his reelection mounted by conservatives and groups backed in part by the fossil fuel industry.

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In the end though, Obama’s green energy legacy will be built in the executive branch, as it’s unlikely that the divided Congress will pass major climate or energy legislation. While Democrats retained control over the Senate, a climate bill continues to face intense opposition in the Republican-controlled House.

“Congress will still likely be an incredibly difficult place to make progress” on issues like climate change, said League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski, and Obama will again have to be “very aggressive using his executive authority.”

Daniel Weiss, director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, said it’s possible Congress could approve low-hanging fruit like energy efficiency legislation, noting the bipartisan support for an efficiency bill authored by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio).

And he predicted that the Obama administration will make “a serious effort” to pass a “clean energy standard” that would require utilities to generate 80 percent of their power from low-carbon energy sources by 2035. Obama has long pushed for a CES, but the proposal has made little progress on Capitol Hill in recent years.

Still, all eyes will be on the executive, where greens are hoping for some changes. Pica said Obama should replace Todd Stern, the State Department’s lead international climate change negotiator.

“Changing up our lead climate negotiator would be a good offering to the rest of the world,” he said, pointing to failed efforts to reach a binding global climate treaty.

And he called on Obama to install a leader at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, an agency that has come under fire from environmentalists for seeking to soften EPA rules, who “understands that the federal government needs to make rules and regulations and it’s not always a clear cost/benefit analysis.”

“We need stronger leadership in the White House on climate change,” he said.

On the regulatory front, environmentalists are keeping their fingers crossed that Obama will quickly propose climate change regulations for existing power plants and impose tighter smog standards next year, a plan the president punted on in 2011.

Dan Reicher, who served as assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the Energy Department during the Clinton administration, said Obama should provide new financing mechanisms for wind and solar power through the Treasury Department and boost investment in carbon capture and storage technology for coal-fired power plants.

“We’re going to see the president work to implement his all-of-the-above approach to energy policy,” said Reicher, whose name has been bandied about as a possible Energy secretary in a second term. “Some of it will require Congress to act but there’s a decent chunk of it that doesn’t.”

Darren Goode contributed to this report.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 2:36 a.m. on November 7, 2012.

Readers' Comments (2)

Look, I have been a lifelong environmentalist my whole life. The environmental movement is more pragmatic and open minded then everyone thinks and then it's ever been. A greater understanding of global climate change has helped the environmental movement move away from it's "Not in my backyard" philosophy. Now, we see a lot of potential for effeciency not only being good for the environment, but good for economic competitiveness around the world. Also, energy is a truly red and blue issue. Better energy helps us all, not just special interests. This is definitely something the government can HELP OUT in.

We understand that we must balance economic potential with preserving our natural resources. We understand quality of life is important, but so is annual income and education.